Angela da Foligno was born either in 1248 or 1249 and died in 1309.
Capable of reading but unable to write (Thier-Calufetti,
"Introduzione" 26-27), most likely between 1292 and 1296 she
dictated her spiritual experiences to a Franciscan, who, as Pozzi
writes, "si nasconde dietro la sigla di A. ["fratre A."],
sciolta tradizionalmente in Amaldo senza alcuna prova documentaria"
(Angela, Il libro, "Introduzione" 15). (1) Although no doubt
can be raised about the identity of Angela da Foligno, the name of
Angela never appears in the text: she is always referrred to as
"fidelis Christi" and in the Testificatio as "cuiusdam
famulae Christi" (126, line 2).

While the fidelis Christi related her experiences in the vernacular
of her native Umbria, the Franciscan scribe--according to his written
statement in Il libro--wrote at her presence and translated her words
into Latin: a Latin as distant from Cicero's language as it is from
the contemporary Florentine vernacular of Dante's Vita nuova. Fra
Arnaldo's socalled first redazione of Angela's mystical
experiences was then presented to the ecclesiastical authorities and to
a group of Franciscan theologians for their approval. This official
approval or testificatio, marks the beginning of what is currently
called the second redazione. (2)

The original transcription of Angela's experiences is lost,
and the reconstruction of the critical text has been most difficult. The
tradition of Angela's writings has been divided into no fewer than
eight families with twenty-nine manuscripts (Thier and Calufetti,
"Introduzione" 51-73). The oldest manuscript, which is in
Assisi, is a copy of an exemplar of another exemplar, being thus three
times removed from the original text, according to Thier and Calufetti;
for Pozzi, instead, the Assisian codex "non rappresenta per nulla
'un terzo testo', come vogliono gli editori [Thier and
Calufetti], bensi trasmette la redazione piu prossima
all'archetipo" (Angela, Il libro, "Nota al testo"
245). (3) The title assumes no fewer than six different appellations in
the tradition of the manuscripts and in printed editions, and to call it
Memoriale is only a conjecture. (4) In fact, one might even submit that
the book has no title, and thus ask with Pozzi:</p> <pre>
Perche questo 'senza titolo'? E il libro per antonomasia,
audacemente eretto a paragone col solo che possa presentarsi tale? O
lo e per omologazione a un contenuto che si autopropone come un
nichil incognitum [unnulla nascosto]? Il fascino
dell'imprendibile e indefinibile turba o allieta fin dai
prodromi questo percorso di lettura. (Angela, Il libro,
"Introduzione" 15) </pre> <p>Thus, in the case of
Angela da Foligno's Memoriale, the mystic to whom the writing is
attributed finds herself at some remove from her own life account, since
she was not involved directly in the physical act of writing.
Furthermore, the issue of authorship becomes further complicated because
of the peculiar nature of mystical experiences described first through
the spoken word and second through the written word by means of a
scribe.

An element characteristic of every mystical experience is the
mystic's "radical passivity": God is always the principal
agent, while the creature assumes a secondary role. (5) In brief,
confronted with experiences inherently ineffable because they are by
nature utterly transcendent, the mystics find themselves in the
particular situation of seeking to describe them through the human word,
which, although it is founded on knowledge, is nevertheless unable to
fulfill its task. (6) Consequently, as Pozzi writes, the readers are
therefore urged to reflect "su come il dicibile, che 6 un sapere,
si colleghi con un fare ineffabile" ("Patire e non
potere" 2). Further complicating the issue of communication,
Angela's mystical experiences can be known to us only through
written records, whose scribes differ from their author. What concerns
me here centers on the ways in which Angela da Foligno's
experiences, communicated orally to her scribes, are recorded through
writing and have thus reached us. (7) Thus what scholars of mysticism
view as a hindrance in their analysis of medieval mystical
experiences--namely, the impossibility of having any direct access to
those experiences except through texts--provides the literary critic with a written text worth analyzing. (8)

Just as many medieval and Renaissance mystical texts, the
Memoriale, as Karma Lochrie suggests, lies "outside medieval
taxonomies of authorship and textual production" (60). (9) In fact,
that the Memoriale was not physically penned by Angela emphasizes a
frequent characteristic of authorship throughout classical antiquity and
also the Middle Ages: the physical act of writing was often seen as a
skill separate from the act of composing, which was associated with
reading and thus with orality (Clanchey 41; 90; 97; 219; Lochrie 102-04;
Carruthers 194-96; Fleischman; Murphy; Ong). At the same time, however,
Angela da Foligno cannot be viewed as a typical dictator. In fact, just
as she was not free to speak or not to speak, the scribe, as we shall
see, finds himself in a condition utterly subservient to the mystic.

In reading Angela da Foligno's Memoriale, one is struck, not
only by the voice of the mystic and by the voice of the scribe, but also
by the Testificatio, which marks the presence of the official Church.
The scribe not only begins and ends the narration in the first person,
as if he were the principal narrator, but countless times he thus
introduces himself: "ego indignus scriptor" (Memoriale,
"Prologus" 130); "Ego frater scriptor" (Memoriale,
ch. 1, 134; ch. 2, 159); "ego frater, qui indignus scripsi"
(Memoriale, ch. 1, 156); etc. (10)

And yet, much more important than the undeniable presence of fratre
A. is the function that such a presence carries out in the text. The
scribe describes his function as secondary and subservient to that of
Angela, even though it is he that forces Angela to speak shortly after
her scandalous and vociferous ecstasy at the entrance of St. Francis
Basilica in Assisi: (11)</p> <pre> ... post parvum
tempus postquam ego illam coegeram ad dicendum ... (... in poco tempo
da poi che quelo a dire l'ebi constreta ...) (ch. 2, 166, ll.
86-38) (12) Et consului et coegi eam quod totum diceret mihi et quod
ego volebam illud scribere omnino, ut possem consulere super illo
aliquem

averne conscio da alcuno savio et spiritual omo lo qual mai lei
non congnosese.) (ch. 2, 170, ll. 123-25) </pre> <p>Thus
the circle of interactions documented throughout the text expands
considerably. The Franciscan wants Angela to narrate to him her
experiences, seeing his own role as that of a scribe and a witness, but
nowhere does he assume the role of ultimate judge and guarantor. By the
same token, the sapientes et spirituales viri--namely, the Church
representatives--to whom the Franciscan presents the Memoriale, do not
carry out the function of ultimate guarantors, since they too ultimately
refer to the Other. (13) It is the Other who addresses Angela and to
whom she bears witness. (14) As Angela is passive in her mystical
experiences, and thus unable to resist the divinity entering her life,
so is the scribe forced to write the experiences she relates to her
because of the Other's presence in his own life:</p>
<pre> Et ideo, antequam ulterius procedatur, credidi me debere
referre Quomodo ego ad istorum notitiam deveni, et qua de causa ista
scribere sum coactus omnino, Deo compellente me ex parte sua. (Et
imperzio, ananzi ch'io piu prozeda, credetti che dovese dire
como de queste cosse io vini a cognosimento, e per che caxione sono
constreto de scriver al postuto, constringendomi Dio da la sua
parte.) (ch. 2, 168, ll. 91-93) (15) </pre> <p>Not only is
he forced to write; he writes only what he hears from the mouth of the
"fidelis Christi" and only at her presence:</p>
<pre> Iste passus qui hic scribitur vicesimus est prima
scriptura quam ego frater, qui indignus scripsi, habui et audivi ab ore
ipsius fidelis

Christi referentis. (Questo passo vigieximo che qui se scrive e
la prima scrittura che io frate scrittore ebi et udi' da la dita
fedel de Cristo.) (Memoriale, ch. 1, 156, ll. 304-05) </pre>
<p>In closing the Memoriale, furthermore, the scribe's
primary concern is not only to make sure, through Angela, of God's
approval of his writing, but also to present once again to the readers
the manner in which he himself fulfilled his role as a scribe.

He writes: I, "frater scriptor," have written "cum
magno timore et reverentia"; I have also written "cum magna
festinatione" as the "fidelis Christi" was speaking to
me, as far as I was able to understand, adding nothing of my own from
the beginning until the end, and leaving out "multa ... de illis
bonis quae dicebat" since I could not grasp them with my mind and
could not write them down. She has spoken in the first person, but at
times I have written in the third person "propter
festinationem" and because of the difficulties caused by my
religious brothers. What I wrote I always read back to her several times
so as to use only her words (ch. 9, 400, ll. 511-27). (16)

The function of the frater scriptor, who listens to Angela and
writes only what he hears, therefore, may only in part be explained
through the fourfold medieval categories of making a book, as
Bonaventure explains in his commentary on Peter Lombard's
Sentences. (17) Accordingly Angela's scribe may be called scriptor
insofar as he "writes the words of others, adding or changing
nothing"; (18) he may also be called compilator insofar as he
"writes the words of others, adding, although not of his own."
His function in the Memoriale may also fall within the medieval category
of commentator, to which that of asker or questioner may be added.

A partaker of her sufferings, he comes close to sharing some of her
experiences: he weeps with her while listening to her confession,
believes that a person of "tantae rectitudinis et veritatis"
could not be deceived (ch. 7, 306, ll. 208-15), and also hears the words
that God speaks to her ("audivi a Deo sibi dici ita," ch. 9,
372, ll. 200-07).

Most importantly, the frater scriptor's multiple functions in
the Memoriale emphasize the presence of Angela: throughout the
Memoriale, the scribe's voice is heard not independently from, but
at the service of, Angela's. In fact, although he is Angela's
confessor and orders her to relate to him her experiences, the Memoriale
evidences a gradual reversal of this confessor-penitent, teacher-pupil
relationship. At times, in fact, he points out that both Angela and he
are writing; (21) more often, he describes his role as that of a
listener and confider of the divine revelations imparted to his
penitent; he once becomes aware that Angela receives revelations about
questions he has not yet addressed to her (ch. 6, 286, ll. 341-45); he
time and again becomes Angela's disciple; (22) finally,
characterizing his role as a scribe at the service of Angela, he elides
his name from the text and makes himself known to the reader as fratre
A. Thus, in a complete reversal of roles, Angela speaks to him as a
teacher and mother who puts spiritual food into the mouth of her
pupil-son:</p> <pre> Et hoc ideo dico tibi in isto
modo, possim te aliqualiter imboccare vel aliqualiter immittere in os
tuum.... (E questo inperzo te dico in questo modo, ch'io te
possa in alcuna maniera inbocare....) (ch. 9, 388, ll. 391-93)
</pre> <p>The relationship between the scribe and Angela
reverses itself completely. No longer a scolder and an accuser of
Angela's vociferous and scandalous conduct as he was at the time of
her ecstasy in St. Francis's Basilica, the Franciscan assumes the
posture of the humble disciple who seeks to learn from her teacher and
that of the spiritual son who tries to imitate her mother. (23) He
writes what he hears, and does not write when he is so instructed. (24)
Precisely for these reasons, the scribe shares the blessings that Angela
and her socia receive from the Other, as Angela says: "... fiebat
benedictio super caput nostri trium ..."; "... se fazea la
benedizione sopra lo capo de nui tre ..." (ch. 6, 268, 1. 139). And
both Angela and the scribe must give thanks to God for the writings they
have begun and written together (ch. 9, 370, ll. 179-82).

Thus, although present from beginning to end, the scribe's
voice leaves the way to that of Angela. (25) Hers is the voice that
speaks throughout the text. (26) Although apparently forced to speak by
her confessor, in relating her experiences she is afraid that her words
will be judged sinful by God, since she speaks so poorly and
defectively. (27) In fact, she is aware that what she relates and her
confessor writes, although true, is so inadequately expressed through
words that it appears mendacious. (28) At best, what she can tell her
scriptor, compared to what she hears from the Other, is either
"male dicere" or "nihil dicere": "dire niente,
over dire male" (ch. 9, 360, ll. 83); furthermore, time and again,
as she listens to the scribe repeating to her what he has written under
her dictation, Angela comments that her words are blasphemies. (29)

ne dico e dirone de queste cose, piu ne remanera a me.) (ch. 4,
216, ll. 206-09) </pre> <p>The word spoken to her has
become an immanent Word: no matter how widely it is communicated to and
shared with others, that Word shall never abandon her but always remain
with her. Angela herself has been totally transformed into the
Other:</p>

<pre> Et video me solam cum Deo, totam mundam, totam
sanctificatam, totam veram, totam rectam, totam certificatam et totam
caelestem in eo. Et quando sum in isto, non recordor alterius rei.
(E vegome solla con Dio, tuta monda, tuta santificata, tutta vera,
tutta retta, tutta certa, e tuta zelestiale in esso. E quando sono in
questo, non me recordo d'altra cossa.) (ch. 9, 390, ll. 413--16)
(33) </pre> <p>And it is the Other that speaks and bears
witness to this inner transformation:</p> <pre> Filia
pacis, in the pausat tota Trinitas, tota veritas, ita quod tu tenes
me et ego teneo te. (Fiolla de paze, in te se posa tuta la Trenitade,
si che tu tieni mi et io tegno ti.) (ch. 9, 390, ll. 418-19)
</pre> <p>By way of conclusion, I would like make a few
remarks about autobiography as regards Angela's Memoriale. In a
series of studies as well-known as they are controversial, Philippe
Lejeune argues that at the basis of autobiography resides a contract:
the autobiographer's covenant with the reader to write his/her life
account. Insofar as autobiography, according to Lejeune's
definition, is founded on such I-you relationship--the I being the
narrator-protagonist and the you being the audience--every
autobiographical project bears out an inherently dialogic nature.
Lejeune's definition of this genre privileges contemporary
autobiograpy, beginning with Rousseau's Les Confessions and thus
excluding from the autobiographical genre all writings written between
Augustine's Confessiones and Vico's Vita. According to my
previous analysis, however, Angela's Memoriale evinces an inherent
dialogic nature. (34) On the one hand, the particular nature of mystical
experience requires of Angela a "radical passivity"; namely,
the emptying out and the annihilation of the self, as Giovanni Pozzi
explains by commenting on a quotation of a sixteenth-century mystic,
Maria Maddalena de' Pazzi. (35) On the other hand, despite the
mystic's radical passivity in front of the divinity, Angela da
Foligno cannot but dialogize. In fact, she does so first and foremost
with the divinity, without whom no mystical experience would occur and
no dialogizing could be initiated; second, she dialogues with her
scribe, her disciples, and all readers. Angela's "radical
passivity" in front of the Other is evidenced by her ecstatic
rapture in the Basilica of St. Francis in Assisi, the first of many
mystical episodes. This mystical rapture evidences even more keenly the
extent to which the Other takes complete control of her:</p>
<pre> ... una vice fui tracta anima et videbat quod istud quod
quaerebat non habebat initium neque finem. Et ipsa anima, cum esset
in ipsa tenebra, volebat redire ad se et non poterat; et non poterat
procedere ante, nec poterat redire retro ad se. Et post istud subito fuit anima levata et illuminata.... Et fuit anima statim extracta de
omni illa tenebra priori. Unde et prius in illa tenebra iacebam in
terra, sed in ista maxima illuminatione steti in pedibus, in
summitate digitorum grossorum pedum. Et eram in tanta laetitia et
agilitate corporis et sanitate corporis et renovatione corporis, quod
nunquam tantam habueram. (... una fiata fue elevata e trata
l'anima e vedeva che questo ch'io adimandava non aveva
prinzipio ne fine. Et essa anima, mentre era in essa tenebra, e
voleva tornare a rietro a se, non poteva; e non poteva ire innanti,
ne ritomare a rietro a se. Et dapo' queste cosse l'anima
subitamente fo levata et iluminata.... E fo l'anima incontinenti
trata de tuta quela tenebra de prima. Onde e inprima in quela tenebra
io iazea in terra, ma in questa grande inluminazione stiti in piedi,
in su le ponte de le dite grosse de li piedi. Et era in tanta letizia
e alegreza del corpo e rinovazione, che mai tanta non avea avuta.)
(ch. 6, 282, ll. 298-308) </pre> <p>At the same time,
despite Angela's radical passivity in front of the Other, rime and
again she initiates with the Divinity a dialogue based on insistence and
demands. For instance, precisely during her pilgrimage to Assisi that
led to her first ecstatic rapture, she addresses St. Francis with a
certain insistence so that he may obtain for her a special grace: to
experience God and to become truly poor, since she had kept well the
Franciscan rule she had just embraced (ch. 3, 178, ll. 17-21).

Just as Angela enters into a dialogue with the Other, she also
dialogues with her scribe and her female companion. Her socia, in fact,
often witnesses Angela's mystical raptures and occasionally plays
the function of intermediary between Angela and the Franciscan friar
(e.g., ch. 7, 320, ll. 371-85). Furthermore, through Angela, the male
scribe and Angela's female companion form a human trinity, thus
entering together a dialogue with the Other and sharing the blessings
bestowed upon Angela:</p>

pecato, e fazeseme la obsuluzione per i meriti de la sua pasione,
e desseme la sua benedizione e a la conpagna mia et a te. ... Et
alora mi parea ch'io vedese quela mane che me benedizea, e
comprendea che se fazea la benedizione sopra lo capo de nui tre....)
(ch. 6, 266-68, ll. 133-39) (36) </pre> <p>To such a
dialogue with the Other, on the one hand, and with the scribe and her
socia, on the other, one can attribute the specifically feminine voice
of Angela's Memoriale. Breaking the rule of silence to which
society relegates her because of her sex, Angela's prise de parole
constitutes an act of power marking her attempt at entering into
language and thus into the public sphere of social interaction. (37)

WORKS CITED

Allen, Judson B. The Ethical Poetic of the Later Middle Ages: A
Decorum of Convenient Distinction. Toronto: U of Toronto P, 1982.

Shozo, Shibath. "Notes on the Vocabulary of The Book of
Margery Kempe." Studies in English Grammar and Linguistics: A
Miscellany in Honor of Takanobu Otsuka. Ed. Kazao Araki. Tokyo:
Kenkysha, 1958. 209-20.

(5) "L'experience mystique est avant tout une experience
de passivite radicale: c'est le transcendent, le mystere qui
envahit l'existence humaine" ("Mystique,"
Dictionnaire de spiritualite ascetique). I refer to this extensive
essay, with ample bibliography, for the analysis of the fundamental
concepts and phenomena of mysticism. See also the older but still useful
article "Mystique" in Dictionnaire de theologie catholique.

(9) An extraordinary example of the peculiar nature of mystical
writing is offered by Mafia Maddalena de' Pazzi, whose words,
pronounced while she was in ecstasy, were transcribed by her fellow
sisters, who took turns in witnessing the mystic's ecstasies and
recording her words (Scrittrici mistiche italiane 419-46).

(10) Two translators of Angela's writings--Salvatore Aliquo
and Giovanni Pozzi--adopt a technological device to separate the voice
of the scriptor, which is printed in italics, from that of the fidelis
Christi, which is printed in Roman. Insofar as the text presents itself
as a narrative continuum, such a device may be objectionable.

(11) One of the most extensive autobiographical episodes of the
Memoriale, Angela's ecstasy in Assisi marks a turning point in her
spiritual life and in Fra Arnaldo's interest in her. In order
better to understand Angela's "scandalous" ecstasy, Fra
Arnaldo forces her to speak to him: "... coepi cogere earn omni
modo quo potui quod ipsa indicaret mihi quare sic et tantum striderat
vel clamaverat quando venerat Assisium" (ch. 2, 170, ll. 116-18).
Thus that ecstatic episode offered to her the opportunity to relate her
experiences and to him to transcribe them (Memoriale ch. 2, 174, ll.
168-70).

(12) The editors Thier and Calufetti employ Italics to indicate
what they call the seconda redazione (118); the translation in a
vernacular from Verona comes from "Cod. Milano, Bibliot.
Trivulziana 150" (M), facing the Latin text in the Thier-Calufetti
edition (described at 58-61).

(13) As we read in the "Testificatio" that precedes the
prologue of the Memoriale, Cardinal Giacomo Colonna and eight other
"famosi lectores" approve these writings, which they
"humiliter venerantur et tamquam divina carius amplectantur"
("Testificatio" 126-28; my emphasis). Also Angela has a human
witness of many mystical experiences: the "socia sua, quae erat
mirabilis simplicitatis et puritatis et virginitatis" (ch. 3, 188,
ll. 165-66). On the identification of this female companion, see
Their-Calufetti's "Introduction" (30-33).

(16) Insofar as he read back to Angela, Fra Arnaldo followed a
practice common to medieval secretaries; the extent to which he
refrained from expanding Angela's words emphasizes the peculiar
nature of his scribal role, which he viewed in a more narrow sense. For
references to scribal roles: Saenger; Brown 272-73; Curtius 76; 314;
Gurevich; Stock; Johnson.

(20) Fra Arnaldo is also prevented from speaking to Angela. At that
time, a little boy ("puer parvulus") writes down vulgariter
what Angela relates, a relation poorly written -he comments--which he
then translates into Latin (ch. 7, 288, ll. 8-17). This translation
continues until page 296, 1. 95.

(25) The concept of "voice" is difficult to explain. For
Bakhtin, the voice "is the speaking personality, the speaking
consciousness. A voice always has a will or desire behind it, its own
timbre and overtones. SINGLE-VOICE DISCOURSE ... is the dream of poets;
DOUBLE-VOICE DISCOURSE ... the realm of the novel" (434). In
reference to Angela, however, one could argue that her words reveal the
uniqueness of her voice as well the origin of her discourse (the Other)
and its intended audience.

(34) Isofar as Lejeune's definition bases autobiography on a
contract between the narrator-protagonist and the audience, it also
grounds autobiography on Bakhtin's concept of dialogism, which is
thus described in the "Glossary" of The Dialogic Imagination:
"Dialogism is the characteristic epistemological mode of a world
dominated by heteroglossia. Everything means, is understood as a part of
a greater whole--there is constant interaction between meanings, all of
which have the potential of conditioning others" (426).